Gorgeous Frozen Waterfalls In Tennessee That Must Be Seen To Be Believed

Tennessee is located in the southern region of the United States, which means it doesn’t get TOO crazy chilly during the wintertime. It gets cold, of course – but freezing? That’s a little harder to come by. You have to turn to East Tennessee and the foot of the Great Smoky Mountains to find a frozen bit of wilderness – and we did. There are only two waterfalls that “freeze over” during the wintertime, and we’ve dug up a couple shots of each – we’re pretty proud of ’em.

And once we hit the dead of winter, the whole place becomes a winter wonderland. As the highest waterfall in the eastern US, Fall Creek Falls lives up to its title by staying beautiful and majestic at all times of the year.

Here, you can see that Silk Creek Falls has pretty much frozen over entirely. It is also located in Fall Creek Falls State Park, which gives it a leg up when it comes to freezing during the wintertime.

How does a waterfall freeze over, you may ask? Well, it takes a lot, which is why Tennessee doesn't have a lot of examples. Moving water is much harder to freeze than still water because the physics of standing water and the kind that rushes and gushes and falls are A LOT different.

Tim Lumley - Flickr

Frozen water forms from the slowing of molecules, sluggish in the cold and sticking together. Solid particles of "frazil ice" clump together when they come into contact with each other, and will clump onto anything else they touch. Eventually, the frazil ice will build up and form an anchor, one that will grow and, if the weather stays chilly enough, stretch the entire length of the waterfall.